In 1954 SSgt Paul Sersland was traveling from Los Angeles to Birmingham, Ala. to make repairs on a B-25 bomber. Over the Grand Canyon the plane began to experience problems and Sersland talked with the Lord and told him he didn’t need to fly anymore if he got him through the ordeal. That was the last time Sersland flew in [...]
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Recognizing the sacrifices of women who helped win World War II and pioneered the women’s movement, the women came from all walks of life to fill in on manufacturing jobs left vacant by men drafted to fight for their country. Collectively known as “Rosie the Riveters,” their stories have mostly gone untold and their accomplishments unrecognized. However, at 3 p.m. [...]
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Daily Mail: A 91-year-old WWII veteran fighting to prevent his daughter from evicting him from his Ohio home has raised more than $138,000 from online donors to buy back his home, easily surpassing his goal.John Potter says he’s ‘amazed’ by the more than 5,000 people who have donated toward his original $125,000 goal while telling his granddaughter, Jaclyn Fraley, ‘I [...]
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Telegraph: Earlier this year, the Government launched the clasp for those who had taken part in the air offensive during the Second World War, but stopped short of awarding a medal, as campaigners had been calling for.But figures suggest that barely half of those eligible for the lesser award have so far applied, with veterans snubbing the “pathetic” award.It comes [...]
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The RAF Museum reports: It doesn’t seem as if five years have passed since we first heard of an aircraft wreck on the Goodwin Sands, just off the Kent coast. Since learning for certain that it was a German Dornier Do-17 bomber, the only remaining example of thousands built for the Luftwaffe, the RAF Museum has worked tirelessly to save [...]
Standing out as one to watch for the bookies in the WHO What’s Not to Like championship stakes is this little gem from Michael Forrest. This is a history book which doubles as a battlefield guide and somewhere in the gaps it is also an artilleryman’s journal of sorts. I suppose you might call it a bit of a hoot. [...]
World War II Weekend – ‘Dig for Victory’- 1st/2nd June 2013 Tyntesfield House, Wraxall, Bristol, BS48 1NX The spectacular Tyntesfield estate, situated just outside Bristol, was the location for an American hospital during World War II. The Victorian Gothic Revival buildings played host to US personnel working in Britain and to servicemen returning from Normandy after D-day in June [...]
In 1954 SSgt Paul Sersland was traveling from Los Angeles to Birmingham, Ala. to make repairs on a B-25 bomber. Over the Grand Canyon the plane began to experience problems and Sersland talked with the Lord and told him he didn’t need to fly anymore if he got him through the ordeal. That was the last time Sersland flew in [...]
The RAF Museum reports: It doesn’t seem as if five years have passed since we first heard of an aircraft wreck on the Goodwin Sands, just off the Kent coast. Since learning for certain that it was a German Dornier Do-17 bomber, the only remaining example of thousands built for the Luftwaffe, the RAF Museum has worked tirelessly to save [...]
The Boston Globe reports: US military history is filled with units whose names not only convey a whiff of combat — 101st Airborne, First Air Cavalry, 14th Field Artillery — but also describe what the unit did on the battlefield. But what is one to make of an outfit with a name like 23d Headquarters Special Troops? That unit, consisting [...]
The daily post reports: THE wreck of a rare American fighter plane which crashed during World War II remains hidden under the sand of a Gwynedd beach. The Lockheed P-38F Lightning was found near Harlech six years ago after being covered by sand for more than 65 years. Its pilot, USAF Lt Robert Elliott, walked away unscathed after the plane’s [...]
slate.com reports: This WWII-era packing list for Army nurses was sent to me by reader Patricia Britton, whose mother, Laura Rodriguez, served from 1944 through 1946. Rodriguez , who was 23 when she enlisted, had worked for less than a year at a hospital in Gallup, N.M. when she entered basic training for army nurses in Texas. She received the [...]
The New York Times reports: The soldiers who landed in Normandy on D-Day were greeted as liberators, but by the time American G.I.’s were headed back home in late 1945, many French citizens viewed them in a very different light. In the port city of Le Havre, the mayor was bombarded with letters from angry residents complaining about drunkenness, jeep [...]
In the week of the 70th anniversary of the Dambusters raid, Dame Judi became a patron member of the Upkeep Club, a name chosen to reflect both its purpose and to reference Bomber Command’s most famous night, when bouncing bombs codenamed Upkeep breached two Ruhr dams.The RAF Benevolent Fund, which has taken on the guardianship of the memorial, is looking [...]
Independent: Zdenek Skarvada, who has died aged 95, was one of the last surviving Czech or Slovak pilots who flew fighters or bombers in the RAF during the Second World War. They took heavy casualties: 32 Czech fighter pilots were killed in his 310 Squadron alone and 480 overall in RAF fighters or bombers. After the engine of his Spitfire [...]
Rian.ru reports: Russia will decommission and scrap two of the largest submarines in the world by 2018, a defense industry source told RIA Novosti on Tuesday. The Severstal and the Arkhangelsk, both Project 841 (Typhoon-class) ballistic-missile submarines, based at Severodvinsk on the White Sea, will be withdrawn from the Navy by the end of this year and will begin to [...]
Being in London and driving its streets, you’re simply struck by the city’s deep history. Wars were fought over the course of centuries in Northern Europe. And one of the primary reasons London still exists in such a similar form is because of the way Britain repeatedly defended its land. That’s the premise behind a project taking place off the [...]
This new visual interactive timeline and map is the latest in digital initiatives released by ABMC. It is designed to allow the user to view the key events of World War I across time or geography. Free to all users via the ABMC Multimedia Web Page it’s a strong tool for helping students or history buffs understand the key events of World [...]
Hell’s Angels Veteran flys againMay 23, 2013
Huntington State Office Building Will Be Renamed for Rosie the RivetersMay 22, 2013
‘I never knew people could love an old man so much’: WWII vet, 91, ‘saved from daughter’s eviction’ after $138,000 raised onlineMay 22, 2013
Bomber Command veterans boycotting ‘insulting’ awardMay 22, 2013
Countdown to raising the Dornier commencesMay 22, 2013
When wartime appearances were deceiving by designMay 22, 2013
American fighter still hidden under North Wales beachMay 22, 2013
What to Bring to a War: A Packing List for WWII Army NursesMay 22, 2013
Drunkenness, jeep accidents, sexual assault – The Dark Side of LiberationMay 22, 2013
Dame Judi Dench launches £1.5m campaign for maintenance of Bomber Command MemorialMay 22, 2013
Obituaries Brigadier-General Zdenek Skarvada: Spitfire pilot who later underwent forced labourMay 22, 2013
Russia to Scrap World’s Biggest Nuclear SubsMay 22, 2013
Raising a World War II Bomber From the English ChannelMay 22, 2013
New Interactive Timeline and Map Allows You to Explore the History of World War IMay 22, 2013
87 shipwrecks, most from WWII, could leak oil near US, but no ‘ticking time bombs’May 22, 2013
Cold War cartography: Mapping where Soviets could – and could not – go in 1950′s AmericaMay 21, 2013
New monument honors ‘overlooked’ WWII aviators killed in training at Columbia baseMay 21, 2013
P-38 Lightning Crash Site at Siar IslandMay 21, 2013
WWI German submarine has underwater Lake Michigan graveMay 21, 2013
Billionaire Paul Allen gets V-2 rocket for aviation museum near SeattleMay 21, 2013